Television Show Cancellations – May 2007

Television Show Cancellations – May 2007

The Class: This show was not very funny; I stopped watching after the pilot. But somehow my wife and I watched a few episodes later in the season. They had re-tooled the cast and the story, and it worked beautifully. The show became an evolved version of Friends. But the first half of the season must have turned-away too many views and it was too late to be saved. Too bad this show won’t be picked up by another network.

Veronica Mars: A great show, an almost perfect show, that did everything right but found it impossible to find a substantial audience. The show has continually been lauded by critics, but few people watched. They built an extremely avid and vocal fan base, but few people watched. The first season was repeated on CBS primetime during the summer, but few people watched. There were guest stars that should have pulled in lots of new viewers (Kevin Smith, Paris Hilton, Joss Whedon, actors from Buffy, Arrested Development, The Simpsons, etc.), but few people watched. There were cross-promotions from shows such as Americas Next Top Model and Gilmore Girls, but few people watched. They tired making the show more accessible by not having a season-long mystery, but few people watched.

UPN/CW kept Veronica Mars around for 3 seasons and earned a huge amount of good will in my book. It was the longest-running unsuccessful show in prime time history. Networks need viewers to be profitable. Despite doing everything right, Veronica Mars couldn’t overcome that fact that adults need a gimmick (super powers, for example) to watch a show revolving around teen characters; no amount ingenious writing or spectacular acting will reverse that. Plus, male viewers aren’t as likely to watch shows with female leads. It’s official, Veronica Mars in gone, but the CW was too afraid to officially announce it because the fan/critic backlash would have overwhelmed the new show announcements. There was talk of revamped/renamed show (where Veronica Mars is in the FBI a few years in the future) but that is dead as well. The show is over and I’m disappointed, but I understand.